Review Blog

Jul 23 2013

The disgrace of Kitty Grey by Mary Hooper

Bloomsbury, 2013. ISBN 978 1 4088 2761 1
(Age: 12+) Recommended. Historical novel.Convicts. Set in the time
of Jane Austen and Regency England, Hooper has her main character,
Kitty Gray, one of the servants in a wealthy household, go to London
to buy a book for her mistress. Kitty is a milkmaid, running the
kitchen dairy which supplies the milk for the household, and so in a
trusted position within the servant community. She is friendly with
the local ferrryman, and he has been left with the charge of his
younger sister, Betsy, following the deaths of his parents. But he
has plans to improve himself, and so sets off to London to gain
employment on the ferries on the Thames River, leaving Betsy with the
distraught Kitty.
Given the task of going to London to buy a book for her mistress,
the innocent Kitty sets off, with Betsy in tow, hoping to find Will.
We see her traveling to the city on a coach, but once there she is
tricked out of the money given her to buy the book, and is alone,
penniless and with a sick child to care for.
She takes lodgings where she can, avoiding the suggestions that she
can earn money in other ways, and eventually, using an old chair to
light a fire for the sick child, is taken to Newgate and sentenced
to seven years' transportation. But she is able to escape. Hooper
can certainly recreate the times well. The reader will be in no
doubt about the gravity of her situation in London, where a girl in
her situation can be easily persuaded into a life of prostitution.
The cruelty of other poor around her adds to the feeling of the
decay of the place, the scavengers in the street, the poor houses,
the unwanted attention of men, the prison and finally the ship where
she is held prior to leaving for the colonies. All are described in
such detail, that readers can be in no doubt about the gravity of
people in her situation.
While some of the plot is perhaps a bit of a stretch to believe, it
is an exciting and involving read, strongly evocative of the times,
and girls particularly will read this book with pleasure.
Fran Knight